The well-built 29-year-old did enough on his first taste of action for Tranmere against the part-timers of Accrington Stanley to earn another trial runout against Preston tomorrow.

At 6' 2" Dadi - a French national who has played in Scotland for Aberdeen and Livingston, his club last season - looked like he has the attributes to cope with the hurly-burly of the English game.

He posed an aerial threat to Accrington whenever Tranmere put good crosses into the box, heading one against the crossbar via the goalkeeper's fingertips.

The first division professionals of Preston should provide a more searching test of potential for Tranmere.

The same can be said for another trialist Jonny Allen, who sat out the Accrington game with a groin strain but should be fit for duty tomorrow.

If nothing else, the pre-season programme is showing Tranmere looking a little short of fire-power with the second division campaign due to kick off a week on Saturday.

They have only one strike to show from the last three games against non-league opponents Vauxhall Motors, Northwich Victoria and Accrington - and even that one was probably an own goal by the Vics keeper.

In fairness, Tranmere occasionally looked threatening during the first half on Saturday.

Dadi made an immediate impact, firing a shot wide from a dozen yards in the second minute and powering in a header from Shane Nicholson's fourth-minute cross that goalkeeper Jamie Spitire fingertipped onto the bar.

Tranmere were also denied by the woodwork on 65 minutes when Alan Navarro crashed a 20-yard free-kick against the angle.

But a Tranmere line-up of an experimental nature, with Tyrone Loran at centre-back and Graham Allen at right-back, could not maintain an attacking momentum on a heavily grassed pitch that tended to hold the ball up.

Accrington, promoted to the Conference as UniBond League Premier Division champions last season became ever more confident the longer the contest went on.

By the second half they held the whip hand and it took a fine goalmouth clearance from Gareth Roberts and an exceptional save from goalkeeper John Achterberg to deny the home team the reward of a goal.

Achterberg was given his most testing game of the pre-season programme.

He dived full length to beat out a 20-yard effort from Ron Prendergast in the fourth minute and did well to block Andy Gouck's close-range shot on 26.

Tranmere looked certain to concede their first goal in three games when Luke James' close range shot was deflected into the path of trialist Hugh McAuley six yards out in the 76th minute, but somehow Roberts scrambled across to block McAuley's shot.

Two minutes from time, Roberts' deflected a shot from substitute John Durnin towards his own goal but Achterberg, reacting instinctively, got a hand to the ball before it crept over the line.